The Gene Genie
by Pickwick12
Summary: Gene Hunt's life is encapsulated in the lyrics of David Bowie's "The Jean Genie." A series of vignettes that take Gene from start to finish. Companion to "Alex on Mars" but stands on its own.


_A small Jean Genie snuck off to the city  
>Strung out on lasers and slash back blazers<em>

The city is ablaze with lights. Gene's never seen so many. He's practically drunk on excitement without any alcohol. He doesn't mind when the Guv tells him goodbye and leaves him on his own. He's Gene Hunt. This is what he trained for. He can handle it.

_Ate all your razors while pulling the waiters  
>Talking bout Monroe and walking on Snow White<em>

He's going to be a hero. He had no idea it would happen so soon. He squares the shoulders that are too wide for his spare frame and breathes deeply, preparing to rush into the house in front of him and arrest the delinquents he knows are inside. It'll make the Guv look at him for sure.

_New York's a go-go and everything tastes nice  
>Poor little Greenie, woh ho <em>

He doesn't even have a second to prepare. An open door is a closed life. The bullet crashes into his face, and he sees flashes and feels wet blood where it shouldn't be. The man steps over him, and he's alone. All alone when it goes black.

_Get back home_

One week. One week was too short to make a name for himself, to become who he'd always wanted to be, to prove his father's words wrong. And now he's somewhere else, and he'll never get home again.

_The Jean Genie lives on his back  
>The Jean Genie loves chimney stacks<em>

The I.D. card he finds in his pocket is a lifeline. DCI Gene Hunt. At home, he wouldn't have made DCI for years, if ever. But the Law has a way of promoting the right people and sending the wrong ones down, he soon learns. He has a job to do. Maybe his life is only beginning.

_He's outrageous, he screams and he bawls  
>Jean Genie let yourself go!<em>

He wants to be Gary Cooper, and there's no one to stop him now. He puts on experience like he puts on weight, learning to trust his instincts and push his point when he's just a little afraid he's wrong. He finds out how to take up space, on the floor and in the mind. He becomes a force. He becomes the Gene Hunt he always wanted to be.

_Sits like a man but he smiles like a reptile  
>She love him, she love him but just for a short while<em>

He can't ever keep anyone. That's the greatest tragedy. As soon as they're whole, they have to go. It happens with his subordinates, and he manages, but he's almost made himself forget by the time it happens to his wife. She sees stars, and she knows it's time to go. Gene takes her to the pub, but he doesn't go in. He never goes in.

_She'll scratch in the sand, won't let go his hand  
>He says he's a beautician and sells you nutrition<em>

The moment he sees Annie and Sam together, he knows how it's going to go. He knows that girl is never going to let go of the little DI with the piercing eyes. Good for her. Just because he's alone doesn't mean everyone else has to be.

_And keeps all your dead hair for making up underwear  
>Poor little Greenie, woh ho<em>

When Sam leaves, Gene's world feels blank. He hates to remember this part of it all, the moment his work is done, the wonderful terrible moment when healing snatches the people he loves most away from him and carries them away. But it's not about him; it's about them. That's why he does it. He became a cop to save the world. Different world, but his job hasn't changed.

_The Jean Genie lives on his back  
>The Jean Genie loves chimney stacks<em>

The transfer looks like a tart. She looks like a tart and talks like a schoolbook. Gene Hunt has never been so beyond himself in his life. Shy Chris he can handle. Angry, fragile Ray. Sweet Shaz. But Alex Drake is a thunderstorm on the landscape of his perfect world.

_He's outrageous, he screams and he bawls  
>Jean Genie let yourself go oh<em>

She thinks she's better than he is. He can see that all right. With all her degrees and her modern ideas and her feminism. He's pretty sure they couldn't have sent him someone less suited. But sometimes she looks at him with a stare that he's pretty sure isn't one of hatred. Sometimes he's almost sure she's staring at him in frank admiration.

_He's so simple minded he can't drive his module  
>He bites on the neon and sleeps in the capsule<em>

What's wrong with a copper and a car and a gun? Gene Hunt never wanted anything complicated out of life, and the Law never said he couldn't enjoy it. He likes being a simple man with simple pleasures.

_Loves to be loved, loves to be loved  
>Woh ho<em>

_Who ho_

What he can't tell anyone, won't tell anyone, is how much he likes being close to Bolly or having a drink with the boys or giving Shaz a safe place to hide in her darkest moments. They'd surely laugh at him if they knew that the man still had the heart of the boy, with a longing to be part of their lives and a desire to keep them safe because he loves them, pure and simple.

_Aoo Jean Genie lives on his back  
>The Jean Genie loves chimney stacks<em>

He hangs on for dear life when everything starts crumbling. He can't stand to watch it all collapse, not that he's worried for himself. But he doesn't know how he'll watch them all leave him. He's done his job too well. The little girl got her screwdriver, and the others, well, they've seen stars. He can't bear it.

_And he's outrageous, he screams and he bawls  
>The Jean Genie let yourself go! Go<em>

They all go except Alex. The irony isn't lost on him. The one who hated him the most believes him now. And that hurts more than anything, because now he knows that she'll leave, too, when it's all over. For Alex, belief means letting go. That's why, even when the others come back, his heart is broken. Bolly is going away.

_Go_

It's beautiful. He wants to be angry, but he can't. It was the same the day Sam and Annie took their walk to the pub, hand in hand. It's always the same. Up until the moment they leave him, he rails inside at the Law that forces him to let them go, but the moment they disappear in a shower of light, he feels a feeling that's indescribable, and he remembers that it's worth it.

_Jean Genie lives on his back  
>Jean Genie loves chimney stacks<em>

He wonders who Keats will be next time. He'll come back; he always does. But Gene will be waiting for him with guns blazing. He won't be caught unaware. He never is. He has the Law on his side.

_And he's outrageous, he screams and he bawls  
>Jean Genie let yourself go woh go<em>

New transfer. New car. A Mercedes and a DI to break in. Might not be such a rubbish morning after all.

_Go go_

He doesn't know when it'll be his turn to go, but he's all right until then. Always.


End file.
